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The ChatGPT features have remained largely the same for two years, but earlier this month, OpenAI made a major overhaul.
Now, ChatGPT offers a new “Canvas Mode,” which provides users with a new user interface to assist with writing and coding projects using AI.
Canvas can be opened by selecting the “GPT-4o with Canvas” option in the ChatGPT menu and clicking on the document icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
Opening Canvas opens a fresh page on which you can enter and edit text, similar to how you would in a Google or Word document.
It also provides a range of shortcuts you can click to adjust writing length, start debugging code, or perform other actions — plus a trusty Back button to revert changes.
OpenAI has initially released Canvas for ChatGPT Plus and Team users, with plans to distribute it to Enterprise and Edu users and, eventually, ChatGPT Free users when it’s out of beta.
How does it perform? We ask AI experts to evaluate ChatGPT’s move into AI coding.
Was ChatGPT Canvas Really Needed?
While ChatGPT releases in recent months, like the more deliberate thinker “o1” may be judged underwhelming, Canvas offers a much-needed improvement to the user interface. It makes it easier to write and code, whether from scratch or with the help of a writing or code assistant.
OpenAI said: “We trained GPT-4o to collaborate as a creative partner. The model knows when to open a canvas, make targeted edits, and fully rewrite. It also understands broader context to provide precise feedback and suggestions.”
You can open Canvas via the document icon or by inputting a relevant prompt (e.g. draft a blog post on sales). Once opened, Canvas offers a range of on-screen shortcuts, including:
- Suggest edits – Prompts ChatGPT to suggest edits to the text
- Adjust the length – Scroll up or down on a dial to change the length of ChatGPT’s output
- Change reading level – Use a dial to change the reading level of the output with options including kindergarten to middle school, high school, college, and graduate school
- Add final polish – Click to double-check text for grammar, clarity, and consistency
- Add emojis – Will add relevant emojis throughout the highlighted section
It’s also worth noting that additional shortcuts are available to users who input code. These include reviewing code, adding logs, adding comments, fixing bugs, and porting to a language.
Canvas thus offers a big improvement over the limited back-and-forth of the traditional human-AI chat view. It gives users more control over editing the model’s output and makes it easier to get further feedback and suggestions on how outputs can be improved.
What do AI experts think of ChatGPT Canvas?
Martin Bufi, Research Director at Info-Tech Research Group, said:
“I believe ChatGPT Canvas really feels like a game changer when interacting with AI; it helps a lot with coding and creative work. The interface is super user-friendly and cuts down on the usual hassle of making tweaks.
“Working in this interactive space just makes everything more streamlined, whether you’re writing, coding, or bouncing around ideas. Features like inline comments and shortcuts keep you moving forward without getting stuck.”
What are the Main Use Cases of Canvas?
At a high level, Canvas’s main value is that it makes it easier to write, code, and edit in a single view.
You can start writing text or code from scratch or prompt ChatGPT to generate them and then use on-screen shortcuts to edit the output without needing to engage in a back-and-forth with the chatbot.
In the original ChatGPT GUI you were limited to inputting prompts to make changes to writing and code, but with Canvas, you have a document view where you can directly edit the end product, either by manually typing or selecting one of the onscreen shortcuts
If you’re writing an article or other kind of content, you can use ChatGPT as a writing assistant to help proofread, edit, and make stylistic changes that improve the overall quality and readability of your work, similar to a tool like Grammarly.
The Limitations of ChatGPT
Of course, Canvas has some limitations, both as a writing or coding assistant, offering a more generic and less comprehensive feature set than a more specialized solution.
Daan Van Rossum, CEO of FlexOS, said:
“Canvas lacks all the other basic functionality you’d expect of an AI writing tool.
“Compared to bigger solutions like Writesonic, Copy.AI, and Lex, it misses features like saving and finding documents, printing, and easily sharing them with others to collaborate.”
Similarly, Bufi notes it’s not a ‘perfect tool yet’ and notes that “the absence of certain IDE features, like a file explorer or advanced debugging tools, holds it back from being a complete coding solution.
“Adding these would make a big difference, particularly for developers tackling bigger projects.”
Likewise, Canvas still has all the core limitations that ChatGPT has, most notably a tendency to hallucinate and share verifiably false information. This means that users should fact-check all content produced with the feature.
In this sense, while Canvas appears to be a big overhaul for the ChatGPT user interface, a lack of document saving and other key features means it still falls short of becoming a complete writing or coding assistant. But it’s a healthy start.
The Bottom Line
ChatGPT Canvas appears to be a future-thinking release from OpenAI. It makes useful improvements to the user interface that support two of its core use cases: coding and writing.
However, Canvas appears to be still in its infancy as a productivity, writing, and coding tool and needs further tweaks if OpenAI wants to stand out from the crowd.
